After pissing off law enforcement with its announcement that iOS 12 will include a tool intended to circumvent cracking of iPhone encryption, Apple has a new feature that police will probably like: Automatic transmission of location data when a user calls 911.
On January 19th, 2017, the Plasco building, a 17-story steel high-rise in Tehran, caught fire. The blaze began on one of the building’s upper floors and then spread quickly through the tower’s sprinkler-less garment workshops. As the Tehran fire department battled the nearly unreachable fire, the steel skyscraper …
Citizen, the extremely dubious rebranding of Vigilante—an app which notifies users of 911 reports near them and encourages them to go out and shoot videos of the crimes and their aftermath—has somehow managed to acquire a new round of eight-figure funding.
We’re gradually learning that smart home devices can be quite valuable for police. Following a recent case in which Amazon handed over data from its Echo device to police investigating a murder, a smart device called the police when a couple was allegedly involved in a violent domestic dispute. [See correction below]
Apple released iOS 10.3 this week, and in addition to a new file system and a built-in “Find My AirPods” app, the new update also fixes a very important bug that could allow assholes to robocall 911.
When a young boy identified only as Roman couldn’t wake up his unconscious mother, he did what any astute, technologically-adept four-year-old would do: He used his mother’s finger to unlock her phone, and then asked Siri to call emergency services. The boy’s actions saved his mother, but the incident exposes some…
T-Mobile is just the latest mobile carrier to deal with problematic 911 calls, but this time, the problems are bad. Like so bad, people are dying. This month, numerous “ghost calls” from T-Mobile numbers flooded 911 call centers in Texas and have been linked to two deaths. And although the calls originated from…
Last month, we covered the arrest of a teenager who utilized a bug to spread a malicious link on Twitter that forced iPhones to repeatedly call 911. And now, we finally know how the bug actually works.
Meetkumar Hiteshbhai Desai, 18, was arrested on three counts of felony computer tampering after allegedly sending out a link on Twitter that forced people’s phones to call 911 repeatedly. Authorities were not amused.
In a deeply regrettable attempt to cash in on human tragedy using viral video magic, a company called Miracle Mattress decided to film and post a bizarre commercial promoting its “Twin Tower sale.” Welp!
Many of the call centers that handle your emergency calls are powered by out-dated technology. John Oliver thinks that’s “fine if you’re describing a Radio Shack, but a little scary if you’re calling a place that handles emergency situations.” He reckons that it’s time things changed.
The memorial is finished, the tower replacing it is occupied, and the museum is open—for better or for worse. Today, several of the largest remaining pieces of World Trade Center infrastructure from the 9/11 terrorist attacks were pulled out of storage to leave New York City.
San Francisco recently reported that its 911 system has experienced an incredible increase in calls since 2011. Was it due to its growing population? Or over-reporting? Or maybe just over-parenting? Nah: It was butt dials.
This morning, The New Yorker heralded the arrival of Speculative 9/11 Fiction with trepidation, calling the trend “unsettling.” The article is partly a commentary on how fiction of any kind deals with traumatic, culture-shaping events, and partly a review of the new anthology In the Shadow of the Towers: Speculative…
Utter the words—and we don’t suggest you do—“charge my phone 100 percent” to Siri, and your iPhone will try and call the emergency services, after a five-second grace period in which you can cancel it. But why?
Carl Sagan is arguably science's biggest rockstar—the ultimate champion for logic and reason. Which makes it all the more painful to find out that his son is a vehement 9/11 truther.
In 1992, mere days after Windows 3.1 was released, it was revealed that typing the letters NYC in Wingdings—Microsoft’s all-symbols font—produced the following antisemitic and/or Jewish conspiracy-backed text, depending on who you asked:
Yesterday, Vox somehow managed to write an entire article about the history of Oracle and its founder Larry Ellison without mentioning the CIA even once. Which is pretty astounding, given the fact that Oracle takes its name from a 1977 CIA project codename. And that the CIA was Oracle's first customer.
22 Words found this little clip by Mark LaGanga, recorded just after the first World Trade Center tower fell on September 11, 2001. One simple understated phrase from a man walking away from the wreckage.
Just this past Friday, the FCC voted to require all mobile carriers and "interconnected text providers" (i.e. iMessage) to allow their customers to text 911 by by next year. Which would be great except for one, itty-bitty little problem: The FCC can't do actually anything about it.